Bling Giveaway Winner & My Top 5

Congratulations, Melissa!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! Your top fives will actually help me to choose which pieces to get samples of for future shows. I do plan to do future giveaways so keep your eyes out for information on them.

Knowing how difficult it can be to narrow down to five pieces, I thought I’d share mine with you.

Alaina’s Top 5

from the Fall/Winter 2010 catalog

1. Oyster Bar (pg 16)

2. Shifting Sands (pg 21)

3. Haute Chocolate (pg 32)

4. Ensenada (pg 42)

5. Susanne (pg 70)

Upcoming Trends and How to Choose What’s Right for You

So it’s taken me a little bit of time, but I’ve finally made it back to Clinton Kelly’s speech and what he had to say about trends. I’ve also got an overview of several trends forecast for this fall and how the pieces from the fall/winter 2010 lia sophia catalog can accessorize them.

First, some questions from Clinton Kelly to ask yourself before buying into a trend…

1. Does this trend show a lot of cleavage?

2. Does this trend show a lot of leg?

3. Is the navel involved at all?

4. Is this the kind of trend that a hooker would use for marketing?

If you can answer yes to any of those questions, especially the last, there’s a good chance it is not the trend your looking for. The most important thing (besides not looking like a hooker) is to do a gut check on whether or not the trend is age appropriate. According to Clinton if you’re asking if you’re too old for the trend you probably are.

Miss the first part of Clinton’s keynote? Find it here.

Now that we’ve got the rules, how about the trends themselves?

I won’t call myself an expert but I did do some research and reading on the trends being seen on the runway and forecast for this fall. I’m going to cover six of them here today.

Fifties

The classic fifties look of hour glass shapes and mid-length skirts is back (thank you Mad Men). Pearls are a great accessory for this look and we have several options one being the Ryne set. It has that fifties glamour while also bringing in a modern touch with the chain layers and black pearls.

Color

Color is in and I don’t mean pastels. Even the pale hues are rich, saturated tones. Shades of olive green are one definite favorite. Here’s an article I particularly liked on the subject.

With accessories there are a few ways to approach color.

1) Choose something that shares a tone with what you’re wearing. For example the Herb Garden necklace features several shades and finishes of green so could be versatile with several outfits.

2) Choose something that complements the color.

3) Go with metallics, they’re neutral. The Multiplicity bracelet set, for example can be worn with pretty much anything and can be mixed and matched if you want to go more towards one tonal family or the other.

Menswear/Suits

Classic suiting and menswear has also been featured widely as well. Jewelry is a great way to personalize suiting whether it be keeping clean lines with something like the Identity set, going a little different like the Eclipse necklace or choosing a signature set like Jenny.

Black

Black is back and, as we all know, black is versatile. Whether your style is cutting edge or classic, black is a great canvas for accessorizing. Bring in a touch of that color trend with the Chianti necklace, bring in the bling with the Multi-Strand Hematite necklace or go simple with Reflection.

Bohemian

This look shows up under a few different descriptions, but if an earthy, breezy style in your thing then you’ll love the Indian Summer bracelet and Sonora necklace with their natural stones and matte metals.

Texture

Texture is appearing in multiple forms – tweed, velvet, lace. Complement these textures without overpowering tham with simple pairings Moonlight Waltz with velvet or the Trance bracelet with lace.  Texture can also be added to an outfit through accessories like the Discotheque earrings or Gold Coast necklace.

That’s it from me for now.

Do you have a fall trend you’ve fallen in love with? Or perhaps a specific piece of jewelry that you already know is going to be your go to piece this fall?

Also – don’t forget to share your top five favorites from the new lia sophia catalog by the 14th for a chance to win in the Bling Giveaway.

Bling Giveaway!

Fine readers, as most of you are aware today marks the release of the new 2010 Fall/Winter lia sophia catalog. In honor of this, I am going to do a drawing where one lucky winner will be able to choose any item $100 or less from the new catalog for FREE.

Fall/Winter 2010 catalog

If you haven’t seen the new catalog yet, you can view it here. You can also now download the new lia sophia app for iPhone/iPod touch/Android and have the entire catalog at your fingertips :)

Once you’ve had chance to peruse at your leisure, write down your favorites because this is what you’ll need to enter the giveaway:

• Your top 5 favorite pieces from the new catalog (this includes the Kiam collection).
• Your email address so that I can reach you at if you win. You can separate it out to defeat the spambots as long as I can put it together again (or get an email link over at scr.im).
• If you have problems entering a comment below you can also email your entry to me at a…@g…l.com

Entries are limited to the United States and can be made any time between now and 10 am EST on August 14th. I will announce a winner on the 15th.

Find the winner and my top 5 here.

2010 lia sophia Conference: Jewels and News

I’m running behind on posting this. I know it and am just going to go ahead and apologize. Now, let us travel back in time about a week and a half…

In the wee early hours of June 27th, which felt even wee-er and earlier with closing The Odd Couple the night before, I met my mum and two other ladies in the McDonald’s parking lot to head out to Milwaukee for the annual lia sophia conference. A lot of the information I gathered whilst there is directly related to business, but I do have some highlight’s from the trip to share.

June 27th

We arrived in Milwaukee mid-afternoon and, being unable to check into our hotel, decided to go join the crowd in waiting for registration to open up. That may not sound like a very exciting prospect, but having been to conference previously we all knew that within our registration bags we would find treasures totally worth the wait.

Fall/Winter 2010 catalog

Multiplicity bracelet set

Nottingham necklace - the Fall/Winter Dress for Success piece

That night we met up with other ladies (and one gent) from our group and headed out to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday (Yay!).

Mmmmm, Key Lime Mango cheesecake

July 28th

The whole bright and early thing followed through the whole trip as we headed over to the US Cellular Arena for opening session to be there when doors opened at 8am. With our coffee in hand we arrived glowing – literally. Here’s mum and I a little later in the day so you can see what I mean.

What does MORE mean to you?

Considering the color, our Zone looked pretty fab and there really was no missing us. The morning was opened up with DJ Ravi on the drums with the Maske Electric String Trio. It was pretty spectacular. Then we moved onto business and recognition. Here are some factoids that may be of interest:

In the 2009/2010 conference year lia sophia…

• entered 439,000 shows/parties
• had 28,000 active advisors
• sold just under 14 million pieces of jewelry
• was cited by the Direct seller’s Association as an industry leader in promoting ethical behavior

What’s even more exciting is what they announced for the future.

• Updated e-vites for hostesses
• a lia sophia YouTube channel (coming this fall)
• the ability for hostesses to post their shows to Facebook
• a pendant flier (much like the beloved ring page)
• AND, the most exciting yet, a lia sophia app for iPhone and Android that will go live with the new catalog in August!!!

We also visited the new line jewelry displays, which had all of the new pieces coming out in the Fall/Winter catalog. Here are a few sneak peeks:

Sporting the Front Row bracelet, necklace and ring

Presence necklace

Empire bangle bracelet

June 29th

“You can wear as many as you want. One, two, six, seven – as many as you like – up to your elbow.”

Ellen Kiam on bracelet trends

This morning’s general session was all about the jewels. We heard from the Advisory Board, they oversee what retires and what new pieces come into the catalog; Ellen Kiam of the Kiam Collection, it’s very Chanel; and Clinton Kelly. Yep, that’s right, Clinton Kelly of TLC’s What Not to Wear was our keynote this year. I’ve actually got a whole blog post just from him that will be showing up in the next few days. I will tell you now though that he was an awesome speaker and the cheering he got from the crowd when he came on stage was almost enthusiastic enough to scare.

Elena Kiam then shared about Dress for Success and the Red Carpet Collections. So far this year lia sophia has donated over 58,000 pieces of jewelry to Dress for Success, which is a value of over 3 million dollars in jewelry. It’s a great organization and you should totally learn more about them if you aren’t already familiar with them.

On the Red Carpet and media side of things, lia sophia had over 3 billion media impressions last year, which is pretty astounding. If you’re looking for some high fashion jewelry worn by the celebs, there are a couple of Red Carpet Collections out currently and we got a sneak peak of the latest collection which will be premiering at Fashion Week in September. It’s pieces are gorgeous Art Deco/Old Hollywood inspired with a lot of rose gold.

We closed out the conference with our White Party (echoing P Diddy’s massive bash). It was quite the party with food, dancing, a museum, aquarium, fireworks AND another piece of jewelry!

Del Mar bracelet

A lightshow so close I had to lay down to watch them

Harley Davidson last year, White Party this year, what will they come up with next?

That’s all for now, but I’ll have more news, updates and Clinton Kelly showing up soon!

Addendum

It has come to my attention that I’ve had some lovely visitors who came across my blog while looking for the new Fall/Winter 2010 lia sophia catalog. Welcome! Thanks for coming by and I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit. My understanding is that online catalog and the free iPhone/Android catalog app will not be available until August, but if you’re really, really anxious to see a catalog I encourage you to get in touch with a local lia sophia advisor as we should all have at least 1 in our possession. If you’re in mid/lower Michigan feel free to contact me at alainarkraus @ gmail.com, otherwise you can search by zip code/address on the lia sophia website.

You’re still welcome to contact me about jewelry, but the wait for the new catalog is over. It HAS ARRIVED and you can find it here.

Also, the lia sophia app for iPhone and Android is now LIVE and FREE for download!

If you’re just curious about the sale for next this month click here to see the August specials flyer.

For more pictures from conference see my facebook album here.

Lastly, make sure to check out the Bling Giveaway for a chance to win a piece of jewelry from the new catalog :)